Quotessence
Home / Books / The Gnostic Gospels

The Gnostic Gospels

Book by Elaine Pagels · 4 quotes · Christianity, Religion, Christian

Filter quotes by topic

AllChristianityReligionChristianFormHistoryHistory Of ReligionAlternativesAuthorityAwarenessBannedBanned BooksBlasphemyBookBuriedBurnedChristChristian ChurchChristian FaithChurchClergy

The Gnostic Gospels Quotes

“We can see, then, how conflicts arose in the formation of Christianity between those restless, inquiring people who marked out a solitary path to self-discovery and the institutional framework that gave to the great majority of people religious sanction and ethical direction for their daily lives. Adapting for its own purposes the model of Roman political and military organization, and gaining, in the fourth century, imperial support, orthodox Christianity grew increasingly stable and enduring. Gnostic Christianity proved no match for the orthodox faith, either in terms of orthodoxy's wide popular appeal...or in terms of its effective organization. To the impoverishment of Christian tradition, gnosticism, which offered alternatives to what became the main thrust of Christian orthodoxy, was forced outside.”

ReligionChristianityHistory Of Religion
Book:The Gnostic Gospels
Create image

“Possession of books denounced as heretical was made a criminal offense. Copies of such books were burned and destroyed. But in Upper Egypt, someone, possibly a monk from a nearby monastery of St Pachomius, took the banned books and hid them from destruction - in the jar where they remained buried for almost 1,600 years.”

YearsMadeBookReligionDestructionPossessionCriminalsDestroyedCopiesBuriedBurnedOffenseEgyptMonkJarsBannedMonasteriesBanned Books
Book:The Gnostic Gospels
Create image